Posts by thexnest

Firstly, you need to figure out what you want.

Do you want to breathe better? Be able to walk more without wheezing or feeling out of breath? Be able to buy more food and clothes? Go to school and get a job? Make your friends, family and yourself proud of you?

Once you establish what you want out of life, then you can figure out how to go about getting it. Whether it's going cold turkey on the drugs and alcohol on your own, checking into rehab, getting into a 12 Step program or getting a therapist... it has to be YOU that decides to do these things and you have to actually WANT to do it.

But it sounds to me like you do need the help of a professional. I don't necessarily mean a therapist or whatever, because therapy doesn't always work for everyone, but even if you just find a knowledgable doctor, social worker, or drug/alcohol treatment place... It'll start you on a better road.

At least you've got one step down-- you realize you have a problem. That's more than a lot of people can say, so I want you to give yourself a hug for realizing that you need to do something to get your life back on track.

The only tip I can give you about starting to care... Cut the toxic things from your life (things, places, people) and leave it behind for good, and learn to love yourself.

I wish you all the best.

Original Post by santonacci:

Original Post by madamq:

I am confident that there must be some scandal or cover-up of wrong doing.

Nothing but net, madamq.

Honestly, true or not, it wouldn't surprise me if she was involved in something like that. Most politiceans dip their hands into a cookie jar SOMEWHERE along the line... a lot of them are just more discreet and/or smart about it than Carbou Barbie over there.

Original Post by dominiquep1:

Actually the body can break down fat into a glycolytic subunit.  Glucose is the energy of choice because it leads into glycolysis and then into the TCA/Kreb's/Citric Acid Cycle as pyruvate and then into the Electron Transport Chain (assuming that your body is operating under aerobic conditions).  For every 1 glucose your body gets 36 ATP which is the most basic biological energy 'currency'.  

While your metabolism prefers to break down carbohydrates (like glucose), if you're mounting a moderate caloric deficient it will break down fats through beta oxidation into pyruvate and fatty acids that through a series of further modifications can enter into the TCA cycle and generate ATP.  The reason why your body stores energy in the form of fat is that it's much more stable and harder to break down than sugars.  Its an evolutionary way to ensure survival during hard times.  If the body has no adipose fat deposits to break down and you aren't consuming enough fats, it starts to break down proteins.  If you aren't consuming adequate levels of 'food energy' and you have no fat stored your body will start metabolizing it's own protein starting with those stored in the liver and the muscles.  

http://dl.clackamas.edu/ch106-06/metaboli.htm http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11255140

...I'm not sure if that means what I was doing was a good thing, or a bad thing.

Aside from that...

I've boosted my calories up to around 2000 and I've gone from 284 to 290. This is a bit depressing, and I'm not sure why my weight went up that fast within a few days. Is it just getting used to the new calorie intake, or am I going to just keep gaining? :|

Original Post by clairelaine:

When one undereats for a long period of time, the metabolism adjusts to burn fewer calories.  This is a life sparing adaptation.  Refer to Ask Mary for answers, and also, the Home page, Getting Started FAQ.

FAQ:  In order to get the daily food servings you need for a balanced diet, it takes about 1200 calories a day. With careful planning, you could have a balanced diet on 1000 calories, but the restrictiveness of a very low calorie level can lead to binging and weight cycling. What's more, very low calorie diets can cause excessive muscle breakdown and metabolic adaptations, which can make you need fewer calories to maintain a higher weight.

Ask Mary says:  Observations by scientists and lay people show that the "starvation mode" exists, but there is no clear explanation for the phenomenon and it is difficult to measure in the lab. In scientific terms, “starvation mode” is called “adaptive thermogenesis". In relation to weight loss, it is the decrease in calories burned by an individual following a low calorie intake, that is beyond what could be predicted by individual’s age, gender, weight, and activity. In other words, the person is burning fewer calories than the calculations predict. The composition of diet, the duration of dieting, the exercise output, and the individual’s muscle-to-fat ratio all affect the adaptation. Unfortunately, obese individuals may be more prone to adaptive thermogenesis

And also:  The body burns muscle to meet the needs of the central nervous system.  That system, which accounts for at least 20% of calories burned, can only burn glucose, a carbohydrate  The body doesn't really store glucose, but protein, from the muscles, organs tissues, and cells, can turn into glucose, while fat cannot.  Protein breakdown continues until the metabolic rate shifts to burn fewer calories from all sources.  That shift is familiarly called "starvation mode" and it is a life-sustaining adaptation. To forestall starvation mode, lose weight slowly, do muscle building exercise to offset muscle loss, and eat about 20% of your calories from protein.

So... I'm guessing that's a bad thing then. xP

Original Post by tattooed_kitty:

Original Post by tonyrocks922:

Original Post by thexnest:

My doctor constantly tells me he wants to see me at 1200 calories.

.....

I'm 21, 5'10, male and currently 289lbs. I get about an hour of exercise per day.

Get a new doctor. 

Yeah, my sentiments exactly. You're an adult male - even if you were at your optimum goal weight, you should be having AT LEAST 1500 calories per day, and THAT is if you do nothing but lay there still, just breathing, 24x7. Though you want to lose weight, you need to adjust your calories way up to support a quick metabolism for your 5'10, 289lb frame. The fastest way to NOT lose is to eat too few calories. Even if you don't feel like you're "starving" you could be tricking your body into thinking it is ... then comes the true lack of hunger, because your metabolism has slowed down so much ... then the stall in weight loss ... then the fast gain once you start to give your body back what it needs. No bueno.

Oh, I feel like I'm starving. Some days aren't bad, but I can't stay on the plan at all because I keep wanting to "cheat"... and then I end up eating "too much" and uhg.

And I think I do need a new doctor... Basically if I don't lose weight or gain it, he tells me it's because I'm eating too much. I try to tell him I exercise on a consistant basis and he acts like it doesn't matter. It's very frustrating... And a bit scary, because I NEED to lose the weight and it feels like nothing is working. Especially when I cave in, eat more and then gain weight. :( Which might be from my metabolism being shot thanks to this low cal diet.

Original Post by trhawley:

I am a healthy, active 5' 10" male and I can maintain 170 lbs while eating 2500 calories a day.  1200 cals seem extremely low to me for a person your size, I'd recommend talking to the Doctor about it.  Are there other health concerns?

I has asthma, possible Lupus, and am pre-diabetic.

I've talked to the doctor before. He's just convinced that I'm simply stuffing my face. Which might be true sometimes, I do admit I slip up, but after I joined this site I am really suspecting that it's more the type of food I eat (since I snap and binge), not exercising enough (I shoot for an hour a day, sometimes I slip when I get depressed) and the fact that this low calorie thing is killing my metabolism (I'm not eating enough to fuel my body).

It's insanely frustrating.

Original Post by seemoleon:

An hour a day of exercise? Depending on what you do, that's 600-900 calories right there, and if you do it daily, that's 4200-6300 calories off per 7 day week, or up to 1.8 pounds a week from exercise alone. I'm sure it's not 7 days of exercise, so let's say it's 3500 less calories. That's 1lb/week from exercise alone.

If you only eat 1,200 calories with a 2790 RMR...wow. The numbers aren't adding up.

I /try/ to exercise for an hour a day. I get up and do exercises during commercials (I have a mini-trampoline that I love), I take longer walks with my dog and I do some work with resistance bands (which I've really come to enjoy) since weights tend to kill my joints.

Yet... the weight refuses to come off. The low calorie diet works perfectly fine if I sit around all day and eat it EXACTLY right, but I've actually /broken down in tears/ a few times because I get THAT hungry and depressed. So... something is definitely not right.

I assume that when you say the numbers aren't adding up, you mean that I'm not eating enough?

Original Post by mperic81:

Your doc is an idiot. A man at your height, no matter what size, shouldn't eat under 1500 cals.

Up the cals to 2000 and remember: you don't lose weight overnight. Give it time. If you're at a 500-800 cals deficit, the weight will come off (1-2 lbs a week).

I'm trying to give it time. It's hard, especially when weight keeps coming back after I eat one cracker. :| Or you know, just LOOK at a slice of cheese.

I like this Medifast stuff (it's what I'm on) and I think I could use it IN a diet plan, but the diet plan itself... I don't think I can do it.

It's just VERY confusing because so many people have been successful on it, doctors seem to think highly of it... And I'm at the point where "2000 calories" sounds scary to me. I really think this stupid crap has given me an eating disorder or something... I feel like if I eat over 1200 calories, I'm this huge failure and...

... Damn, I feel like some twelve year old schoolgirl. :(

No, I figured out I was gay when I was around 10 years old, so 13 really isn't that young. Young kids have crushes too, and I had crushes on boys instead of girls... so I knew something was up, even though I wasn't aware of the differences in sexuality yet.

Original Post by max298:

You are not gay or bi...These are choices that people make either because they are confused or in many cases abused.These choices are more prevelent these days because of Hollywood and others promoting this activity as normal,which it is not.If you have girl parts you are a girl and naturally that means you were created to someday be with a man, built the way he is to be with a girl.

This is the natural order of things and notice the post you have gotten are from those who have made the choice to go against the natural order of things... Misery loves company!!!

Please put this unnatural act out of your mind and be a kid as long as you can without worrying about sexual things.You are to young to make a life changing decision like this.

 

 I have to strongly disagree.

I am gay. I am not confused, and while there is a possibility of my having been abused, it was at the hands of my father. Since the "abuse logic" seems to indicate that you go away from the sex you were abused by (girls who were abused by men become lesbians, for example) then I would be perfectly heterosexual. I am not.

I also did not "choose" this. Maybe there are some people out there who can say "I like people no matter what they are, but I like these people more, so I guess I'm gay!"... But that's not "choosing" to "be gay". That's already being wired to like people regardless of sex or gender and following your heart.

And even if we were to pretend that such ideas were accurate-- which time and time again have been shown to not be accurate-- it comes down to this: who cares? Who I fall in love with is MY business, not yours or anyone else's business.

As for things being "natural" or not... If it exists in the natural world, then it is natural. Considering the fact that there are 1500 different species show to exhibit homosexuality or bisexuality, I'd say it's pretty natural. What ISN'T natural is this tendency people have to assume they can judge others by their own beliefs and try to force everyone else to live by said beliefs.

Besides, if God is all-powerful and all-knowing, then he was fully aware of which babies would be gay and created them as such. Unless you want to concede that God doesn't know everything and/or isn't all-powerful... :P

Of course... I've probably wasted my breath posting such a reply, but I needed to say it. It will likely fall on deaf ears, but maybe if people say it enough, SOMEONE with a lick of sense will start listening.

One last thing...

People can have "girl parts" and be male. People can have "male parts" and be female. Your reproductive organs are only relevant to baby making and have little to nothing to do with one's gender OR their sexuality (beyond the gay/bi/straight/whatever labels).

Original Post by max298:

Original Post by sierrax:

I don't think that it's right to say they can't be gay or bi! I am asexual, and I found it very offensive when people say "You are too young to decide that". Then why is it accepted that my friends are heterosexual. One of them flipped out on me when I said, "Do you think you're old enough to know you're hetero?". Really, do you want kids to just live not knowing their sexuality? Or give them the freedom and respect to say, " I am homosexual, and you're going to have to deal with it".

 I must say that it saddens me to know that so many have been convinced that homosexuality is normal and you born that way.You are not.Something in the the life of these young people has gone wrong.I have raised three children with the knowledge that homosexuality is a sin and it is wrong.They are all hetero.Many parents today(if they even raise their children instead of letting the school or TV do it )don't teach their children the way in which they should go.And the children at an early age see homosexuality being treated as normal everywhere they turn these days and they fall into that sin(or for you atheist deviant lifestyle).

When I was young I had only male friends and I was close to them,but I too was raised with the knowledge that I was created by God as a male and that the  natural order of things was that someday I should be with a woman.But now a close friendship is confused with sexuality because of the sick culture we now live in.

I would bet(if I were a gambling man) that under close scrutiny all of the young people who think they are gay,a moment in their life or a person in their life made them choose the sin of homosexuality.I have had 3 professed gay man friends and every one of them was abused at a young age by a man and continued in it because of guilt and shame.Three out of three are pretty good odds.

You kids in here that think you are gay,you have been lied to.And you are more and more being lied to as this sick world accepts this deviant lifestyle as normal.You are just a kid and even though you think you know it all you don't.And the adults in here or in your life have also been deceived and many of them want to justify their deviance by creating more and more people who accept it.No matter how many people accept it,it is still wrong in God's eyes.

And to know you are hetero is natural and should be accepted at birth.

This really is laughable...

Aside from what I already said in reply to your other post...

Unless you've got proof that you are "raised" to be gay (either from abuse or from some other environmental factor) , all you've got to go off it religion. And honestly, that will get you about as far as a boat with no paddles in a river of tar. :P Meaning, it isn't going to fly. Sorry.

Not everyone has the same religion. Not everyone has the same morals, values, beliefs, etc. It'd be terribly boring if everyone did. So why the heck should everyone follow YOUR beliefs, just because they claim to be The One and Only TRUE Way?

... Which sounds a lot like fad diets, to be honest. ;] "TRY THIS NOW AND WE GUARANTEE 10 POUND WEIGHT LOSS IN THE FIRST WEEK! ONLY THREE EASY PAYMENTS OF 99.99 PLUS YOUR SOUL!"

Yeeeeah.... no way.

Just because your three kids are "hetero" doesn't mean all kids MUST be that way. If I had kids and all three were white, or had blond hair, does that mean I should force every person on the planet to be white or have blond hair? Oh, wait... crap, someone already tried that.

Not to mention that your kids would NEVER tell you if they were bi or gay. :/ Since you've already made it perfectly clear what you'd think of them if they came out to you. So you can only assume they're straight.

As for the abuse thing... How many people HAVEN'T been abused in one way or another? Everyone, or mostly everyone, has been abused as a child. Either by parents, siblings, other relatives, friends or strangers. I've known people who were abused and are bisexual or gay, and I've known MANY more people who were abused and are straight. I've also known people who have lived perfectly happy, well-adjusted lives and are bisexual or gay.

But you know what?

If you want to be stuck in your little coocoon of misery, loathing and hateful ignorance, be my guest. I feel nothing but the most sincerest of pity for people like you, who assume that "different" equals "sinful" or "bad". It's a sad existence.

I'll be going my little 'deviant' way now. :D You know, out to have fun with friends who actually love and care about me, not living a lie or denying who I really am for the sake of "normalcy".

Ciao! ♥

Nah, there's plenty of guys here. I'm not from Dallas, but I'm 20-something and losing weight too. Good luck!